The Liberator Files

November 11, 1859

“Thousands of hearts are throbbing with sympathy as warm as mine. I think of you night and day, bleeding in prison, surrounded by hostile faces, sustained only by trust in God and your own strong heart.  I long to nurse you – to speak to you sisterly words of sympathy and consolation…..no honest man ever sheds blood for freedom in vain, however much he may be mistaken in his efforts.  May God sustain you and carry your through whatsoever may be in store for you!”

November 25, 1859

An account of a gathering at Tremont Temple, “sympathizing with the family of John Brown in their poverty and distress”.

Included is a speech by Ralph Waldo Emerson, and this comment by the editor.  “John Brown has, perhaps, a right to a place by the side of Moses, Joshua, Gideon and David; but he is not on the same plane with Jesus, Paul, Peter and John, the weapons of whose warfare were not carnal, though mighty to the pulling down of strong hands….”

December 2, 1859

Notice of a meeting at Tremont Temple, and listing of speakers, on the occasion of the execution

December 9, 1859

An account of the gathering at Tremont Temple, includes a description of pictures, emblems and mottoes suitable to the occasion, which adorned the hall, and includes parts of speeches made. Much of the edition is devoted to items about, response to Harper’s Ferry.

December 16, 1859

This is the speech at Tremont Temple, December 2.  “I do not rise, on this occasion, to define my position (laughter); that, I believe, Virginia and the south clearly understand, and I as clearly understand theirs.  Between us there is an “irrepressible conflict”, (applause), and I am for carrying it on until it is finished in victory or in death. (renewed applause).  For thirty years I have been endeavoring to effect, by peaceful, moral, and religious instrumentalities, the abolition of American slavery; and, if possible, I hate slavery thirty times more than I did than when I began, and I am thirty times more, if possible, an abolitionist of the most uncompromising character.”   (Loud applause.)

In his speech, Garrison commends the character of Brown, comments on the mockery of the trial.  “Was John Brown justified in his attempt? Yes, if Washington was in his; if Warren and Hancock were in theirs.  If men are justified in striking a blow for freedom, when the question is one of a threepenny tax on tea, then, I say, they are a thousand times more justified, when it is to save fathers, mothers, wives and children from the slave-coffle and the auction-block, and to restore them to their God- given rights…..A word  upon the subject of  Peace.  I am a non-resister  — a believer in the inviolability of human life, under all circumstances; I, therefore, in the name of God, disarm John Brown, and every slave at the South. ….I disarm, in the name of God, every slaveholder and tyrant in the world…..yet, as a peace man –  an ‘ultra’ peace man  –I am prepared to say , ‘Success to every  slave insurrection at the South, and in every slave country.  And I do not see how I compromise or stain my peace profession in making that declaration. Whenever there is a contest between the oppressed and the oppressor, –the weapons being equal between the parties, — God knows that my heart must be with the oppressed, and always against the oppressor.  Therefore, whenever commenced, I cannot but wish success to all slave insurrections. ….Rather than see men wearing their chains in a cowardly and servile spirit, I would, as an advocate of peace, much rather see them breaking the head of the tyrant with their chains. ….”

Included in this edition is the speech of Wendell Phillips, and others, and items about John Brown meetings on the Cape, in New Bedford, and elsewhere.

December 31, 1859

A complex letter to the Editor of the London News is included, from Hugo.  Here are two sentences from that letter:  “It is possible that the execution of Brown might consolidate slavery in Virginia, but it is certain that it would convulse the entire American Democracy.  You preserve your shame, but you sacrifice your glory.”

January 13, 1860

The item from the Cincinnati Commercial says that thirty-six persons have arrived there, having been warned to leave Kentucky “for the crime of believing slavery to be a sin”.  The movement for expelling the men arose from excitement over the John Brown foray.

January 13, 1860

Here there is comment on two poems by Whittier, both on the final page of this edition.  “… we think there is not the same magnanimous recognition of the liberty-loving heroism of John Brown, which is found in many of the poet’s effusions relating to the war-like struggle of 1776, and ‘our revolutionary fathers’…….There is an apparent vidiousness or severity of imputation… which does not seem to be called for, though softened by some approving allusions in close juxtaposition….”  The comment wonders why Brown is the subject of “special moral criticism and rebuke by the poet?”

January 27, 1860

Whittier fells that in Garrison’s recent comments regarding his poems about Brown, has implied that he, Whittier, has relinquished previous strong pledges in abhorrence of war and violence.  Here Whittier asserts his continuing belief that “we were under high moral obligations to use, for the promotion of our cause, moral and political action as prescribed in the Constitution of the  United States…..I have seen no reason to doubt the wisdom of that pledge. Slavery was just what it is now, neither better nor worse, when we made it.  If it is right and proper now to use forcible means in behalf of the slave, it was right and proper then…. I can only say that I dare not encourage who have not any scruple, to do what I regard as morally wrong.”

February 3, 1860

Written from Rome, Dec 24, 1859, there are extracts from a letter written to a friend in Boston.   Commenting on news of the execution of Brown:  “Of course I knew, from the moment of his capture, what his fate would be; the logic of slavery is stronger than the intellect or personal will of any man, and it bears all Southern politicians along with it. No martyr whose tragic story is writ in the Christian books ever bore himself more heroically than Capt. Brown; for he was not only a martyr, — any bully can be that, — but also a Saint – which no bully can ever be. ……John Brown came from a lineage; his life proves it – and his death.  It is not for you or me to select the instruments wherewith the providence of mankind has the world’s work done by human hands; it is only for us to do our little duty, and take the good and ill which come of it.”